The problems of tracking the interconnection pattern among the various ports in a local area network are well known to those skilled in the art. At least one system which deals with this problem is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,467 entitled “Patching Panel Scanner”. The patent describes a patching panel scanner which automatically and continuously senses the interconnection arrangement of various ports such as computer ports and user ports. In this type of system, the interconnection between the ports are provided by patching cables or alternatively by apparatus of internal connection in patching panels such as the CLPP cordless patching panel available from RIT Technologies Ltd. Of Tel Aviv, Israel.
In this type of system, in order to determine the interconnectivity pattern of the various ports, a conductor needs to interconnect the ports and deliver a signal to the scanner indicating the connection status of a particular port. In the modern computer era, it is actually difficult to provide a conductor for this purpose because most modern data cables being used to interconnect various devices have to meet a particular pre-determined standard in the industry. So for instance, a standard cable such as RJ45 eight wires per cable, each having an end which is adapted to mate with an RJ45 port. No free wire allows for scanning for interconnectivity.
Therefore, in the prior art scanner systems, the ports needed to be interconnected via a patch panel which required a special patch cable or an apparatus of internal connections in the patch panels. In any case, the ports could not be connected directly using standard cables. Although the need for and desirability of having a scanner system which can utilize standard cables clearly exist, so far, the industry has been unable to come up with such a system.